Legislature undercuts future of state's brightest scholars

Gap widens between tutions (going up) and scholarships (going down)

While Florida legislators crow about what a great job they did in Tallahassee, household budgets for students who work hard and do the right thing took a beating.

As tuitions are to go up again at state universities, the popular Bright Futures program — designed to keep our best and brightest students in-state — not only fails to keep pace, it is slashed.

Referring to the average full-time student, Florida Gulf Coast University's Susan Evans says: "I haven't seen the actual dollar numbers yet for what will be our proposed 15 percent tuition rate increase, but in plain language, his/her tuition will go up 15 percent and his/her Bright Futures award will go down by 19 percent — if approved by the governor during his review/veto period.

"And the bottom line is that the student is responsible for paying the difference."

Using ballpark figures just for FGCU — and please note that tuitions vary from school to school — a recipient of the top Bright Futures award would get $3,030 next year while tuition is set to rise to about $5,500 — a gap of nearly $2,500.

That would be nearly double this year's gap of $1,230, Evans reports.

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When I had questions about the fire (remember the hero deputies?) the other evening at the senior apartment complex known as Goodlette Arms off Goodlette-Frank Road, I instinctively emailed Naples Fire Chief Steve McInerny.

He was quick to reply that the complex is not in the city, so his department only assisted at the fire scene, and he shared my query about past fires and safety concerns, if any, with the East Naples Fire Control and Rescue District.

The responses are fascinating to compare.

The East Naples official who responded said he would check the files and get back to me.

McInerny chose a different approach. He wrote: "... This complex is filled for the most part with elderly residents. The individual units are not sprinklered although there is partial sprinklering in the hallways. Fires are not starting in the hallways but rather inside of the living units (apartments). So when a fire breaks out in an apartment, smoke (fire gases such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen cyanide) are produced along with heat and flames. These products of combustion travel unabated throughout the corridors and the rest of the building. These fires are extremely dangerous and ultimately eat up lots of resources and personnel. Sprinklers inside of this apartment would have resulted in this fire being a non-issue. This is not the first fire at this complex.

"Disaster was averted this time due to the time of day the fire occurred, versus say 2 in the morning," he concludes, "along with quick and aggressive actions by firefighters."

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A pet peeve: Those end-of-year stunts by principals for students who get good grades or read tons of books.

One education leader this past week donned pajamas and slept on the school roof. Others have ridden horses, jumped into Jell-O or been hit by shaving-cream pies.

Then there is Sabal Palm Elementary School, which will inspire higher learning with University/Career Awareness Week.

For the next five days students will hear from teachers and guests about college life, do research on various state schools and study occupations that require less post-high school study.

The silly stuff comes at the end, with a parade of homemade collegiate T-shirts.

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Part of the Collier County legislative delegation to Tallahassee was downright quotable at a Greater Naples Chamber of Commerce breakfast the other day.

Amid briefings on what was and was not accomplished in the past session, these comments stood out:

Sen. Garrett Richter on how to fix illegal immigration, which he likened to an overflowing bathtub endangering everyone below: "The federal government needs to go to the second floor and turn the spigot off."

He went on to describe the lobbying effort against tightening immigration laws. He said little children with baskets of vegetables, offering to pray for the lawmakers, were everywhere. "That became very stressful," Richter said.

State Rep. Matt Hudson got right to the point: "If you think I suck, vote me out."

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All of us saw the delinquent tax rolls that came with your Daily News.

Wondering: How does this year's total of tardy property owners compare with past years'? Could the answer hold a clue to the direction of our economy?

"Collections are up this year," reports Collier County Tax Collector Larry Ray. "We have 2,350 fewer delinquent accounts this year vis a vis last year.

"For the last several years we have been running about 5 percent of the tax roll as delinquent; this year it is down to 3.5 percent.

"Last year that was $45 million delinquent; this year we are at $30 million delinquent."

Perhaps the bottom has bottomed out?

"I hesitate to speculate. The statistic that I am looking at is taxes collected by the delinquency date," he responds. "I am sure there are many factors involved in paying on time."

But, the punch line: "I am optimistic that from a tax collection perspective, we have started an upward trend."

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Amid talk of routing more traffic to Golden Gate Parkway or Central Avenue in the process of making Goodlette-Frank Road the new U.S. 41 (got that so far?) in the heart of Naples, what about the flash flooding on those two roads come summer?

As someone who used to work in that area, I recall the parkway and Central frequently being better suited for canoes than cars.

Lytle is editorial page editor of the Daily News. His email address is jlytle@naplesnews.com. Call him at 263-4773.